


Jellicle Shorts

by Bees_in_a_davidbowie_shirt



Category: Cats (1998), Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Multi, One Shot Collection, Shorts, more characters to be added as this goes along, more everything really, more ships to be added as well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25610731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bees_in_a_davidbowie_shirt/pseuds/Bees_in_a_davidbowie_shirt
Summary: I write too much and never finish what I start, so I've begun editing some of my started works into one shots so I can post bits of them.Chapter 3 - Its a hot summers day, and guess what, dark colors attract more heat.
Relationships: Mr. Mistoffelees/Rum Tum Tugger (Cats), Quaxo/Rum Tum Tugger, Rumpleteazer/Victoria (Cats)
Kudos: 12





	1. Stage and Screen

**Author's Note:**

> hi i think i mentioned possibly making this on tumblr? hehe here it is

  
  


The Stage and Screen is a mildly fancy restaurant. Every day, people pass in and out, dressed in varying outfits, eating an assortment of food and drinking an unhealthy amount of alcohol with the owner of the restaurant, a large man named Bustopher Jones.

Bustopher Jones also happens to be the father of Mistoffelees and Victoria Jones, two highschool students.

Despite divorcing their mother a long time ago, he had stayed in touch with his ex-wife and communicated well with the kids, always coming over on holidays even after she had remarried, and when the elder child, Mistoffelees, had turned 16, he had offered him a job.

Now, two years later, Mistoffelees was 18 and the younger child, Victoria, was old enough to start working. Naturally, that was exactly what was happening!

A summer Monday morning is always a good day to train employees. It's the first day back at work for all the rich people that go to the restaurant, so it's generally quiet, but there's just enough traffic over the course of a few hours that someone can learn the basics of how to be a server.

At exactly 7-o'clock, Mistoffelees parked his car and unlocked the front doors. He was always very punctual, wanting everything to be perfect, and had even insisted that Victoria follow the dress code that she is very certain her father does not enforce. He didn't want anything to go wrong.

He walked through the restaurant, turning on lights as they went and pointing out different parts that would probably be important sometime in the future. Poor Victoria really didn't have a clue what was going on, but nodded and hummed along to his words. Her brother seemed to think she understood, and she would rather he not get frustrated with her.

Finally, the two arrived at the back door, and he sighed while opening it. On the other side of the door were two ginger teens, probably the same age as Victoria and her brother. They were smirking and laughing to themselves, and the girl giggled. The boy slapped her arm, shushing her, before pushing past and running into the building first.

"I call an assistant cook today!" He shouted back at the other. The girl let out a high shriek, and bolted after him. Mistoffelees just shook his head.

"We're not even supposed to have people 18 or under cooking, but Asparagus doesn't care," he complained. "He always says that he's happy to have an assistant! I think they spit in the food," He mumbled to himself while walking away.

Curious, Victoria moved to go see where the other rowdy teens were going, but her brother suddenly shoved a black apron into her hands.

"Come on, I have to show you how the tables are numbered."

\--

Asparagus liked to cook the employees lunch during the break.

At first, while still training her, Mistoffelees had insisted on eating his food later, saying that he needed to be out front to wait on customers.

The two gingers, whose names she had learned were Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, had informed her in whispered voices that Mistoffelees never took breaks.

Eventually, once Victoria stopped dropping water trays on people's laps, she nearly forced her brother to go sit in the back for just twenty minutes, only to eat a few bites. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazed had given her thumbs up from their respective places when she had first done it; that day, Rumpleteazer had happened to be working with Asparagus while Mungojerrie washed dishes.

\--

While washing dishes, Rumpleteazer often complained about being bored and not having enough to do. She tried to sneak back into the kitchen every now and then, and while Asparagus could care less, Mungojerrie would chase her with a spatula whenever he got the chance.

After a while, she developed a habit of following Victoria around, helping her collect dirty dishes whenever possible while cracking jokes. This also helped because Victoria dropped a LOT of mugs while bussing tables; she needed all the help she could get.

Despite appreciating the help, Victoria was also worried that her brother would get mad that she had extra help. Would he be angry that she wasn't doing her full job? Would he insist Rumpleteazer help him as well? Maybe she should tell the girl to help out with her brother's tables at some point…

However, complaints from Mistoffelees never came. Whenever Rumpleteazer helped Victoria clear away some plates on a busy Wednesday night, if she looked up at just the right moment, her brother would be looking at them and smiling, as if he knew something that she didn't. 

\--

Weekend hours were generally taken by older, adult servers. People that Victoria had never seen in her life worked hard and vigorously, always making sure the regulars had a seat and keeping the wait list short.

When Victoria ran inside to check that week's schedule, she was met by the loudness of a full restaurant, and many people moving around. Suit jackets hung off of the hangers, and quiet music played in the background. Businessmen and women typed things out on their expensive laptops while people across from them scribbled down numbers on notepads, doing unnecessarily long math for what was probably a simple problem like two plus two.

Getting to the back was easy, and she made her way up to the papers, observing the schedule for a minute before deciding to take a picture and send it to her brother. Usually, he wrote it down or memorized it, saying that phones were useless. Victoria knew he didn't actually think this, he just always forgot to bring the phone with him and would leave it someplace around the house at all times.

When she turned back to leave, a voice shouted, _"Hey!"_ And she looked up, surprised.

She was greeted by an angry-looking man that she didn't recognize. He was wearing the uniform; a black shirt and pants and a black apron; and had an empty tray in his hand.

"No customers allowed back here, Missy!" He chided, waggling a finger at her.

She started with, "Oh, but-" however, before she could finish, someone else spoke up.

"Ah, yall aint thinkin' today!" Called a familiar voice. Looking over towards the back door, she spotted Rumpleteazer being let in by some other employee. She was wearing casual clothing, and her hair was down instead of pulled up in the hairnet that was required for cooks and dishwashers.

"Oh my Lord, you need to stop using the back door as an entrance!" Said the man who had first spoken to Victoria, sounding exasperated.

Rumpleteazer simply shrugged, putting an arm around Victoria's shoulders. 

"This is Bustophers girl! She's jus' takin' a picture of that schedule!"

The man's face turned red, probability for varying reasons, before he crossed his arms and turned slightly away. 

"Ah, sorry about that," he grumbled. The trouble over, all the other workers turned back to what they had been doing, and Victoria turned to Rumpleteazer.

The other girl was standing in front of the schedule, observing it with her hands on her hips.

“Thank you for that,” Victoria said quietly. At first she thought that Rumpleteazer hadn't heard her, but then the ginger turned and gave her a big smile.

“No problem!” She replied, cheerful as always.

“Are you just checking the schedule?” Victoria asked, curious.

“Ah, well, I don't know where my phone is,” She said with a nervous laugh, scratching her head a bit.

Victoria giggled a bit with her. “If you want, I can take a picture of your schedule and send it to you?”

Rumpleteazer nodded, and Victoria moved to get a clear shot of the schedule, before turning back to the other girl.

“Could you put your number in my phone?” She asked, holding the device out. “I can text it to you right away, then.”

The taller girl wiggled her eyebrows as she took the phone. “Here, I’m under ‘Teazer’. Ya’ text me the schedule, and maybe I can find my phone, hm?”

“Yup, for sure!” She replied as they exited through the back door, getting disgruntled looks from the adult servers that were currently in the back as they did so. “I’ll see you later this week!” She called, waving as she headed to her car while Rumpleteazer went to hers.

  
  



	2. Growltiger deserved death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Growltigers last stand AU, except I never finished it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i originally wrote this to make griddlebone kill growltiger but then i never got further than the first chapter. i have the whole thing mapped out, i just never wrote it haha

The water was calm that night, so the crew had gotten to sleep for once. Normally, Growltiger, the Captain of the ship, would make them do shifts. Half would sleep, while the other half was up on deck, manning the ship.

Currently, Growltiger himself was up on deck. He had seen the calm waters earlier and decided that he was going to do everything himself.

It was quite strange for the crew to all be sleeping at once. They normally only had two places set up to sleep, for there were only five of them and three were awake at a time.

So it had taken them a bit to clear up the room to make space for more sleeping areas. 

Even now, the arrangements were a bit strange.

Skimbleshanks had his own corner, had insisted on it actually. He continuously repeated that he had a wife and arranged boxes and crates of who-knows what, so that his little corner housed him and him alone.

On the other side of Skimbleshanks boxes, the two brothers, Munkustrap and Rum Tum Tugger, were forced to share a sleeping area. They had always made sure in the past to never work the same night shift, as Tugger got on Munkustraps nerves so much that the two would wake the whole ocean with their arguing. Now, they slept with their backs to each other. The remains of anger lingered on their faces even as they slept.

The last sleeping arrangement was an awkward one. Alonzo and Quaxo were not close, and only occasionally talked. They would have preferred to not be sleeping next to each other, but the tiny storage room on the tiny ship only permitted so many boxes to be moved a certain way. If the two men wanted to stretch out comfortably, they would have to share a space.

There they were, sleeping as peacefully as five men shoved into the same small room on a boat could sleep, when there was a shout.

Of course, the only one who actually heard this first shout was Quaxo, for he is always alert and ready to jump at any movement on the ship. If he's being completely honest, he would say that he's terrified of being on a pirate crew, but Quaxo never expressed anything through words. 

Either way, that first shout woke Quaxo, and he bolted upright. There were no other sounds, and he started to lay back down, only to be jolted back up by the pounding of feet.

“Eep!” He squeeked, cowering against the boxes, as the door swung open and almost hit him.

Growltiger, the self-proclaimed ‘Terror of the Seas’, stood. For a minute, only his outline showed, and Quaxo coward against the crates of junk, before the large man leaned forward. He shoved his ugly face in front of the young man and screamed,

“This crew 'had better be awake soon, unless you idiots want to be attacked by another' ship!”

Quaxo all but faints, and is happy when the Captain turns to go kick the other men fully awake.

Slowly but surely, the others begin to stir. The crew had already been dressed, not taking off their garb in the first place, so all that was left to do was find weapons in the mess of the ship.

Sure, Growltiger always claimed he was the ‘Terror of the Seas’, but for all three years that the crew had been working with him, they had never seen him in action. The most that the pirates did was steal junk and trinkets from small towns; there had never been a raid on another ship before, they had never found buried treasure, and they had never killed another pirate.

Well, at least four of them hadn't. Skimbleshanks, on the other hand, claimed that he had been on Growltiger's crew for over ten years, and that the man had performed many dastardly deeds.

No one believed him.

Weapons were eventually found, and it had barely been ten minutes by the time the entire crew came onto deck.

Munkustrap was the first to arrive. Although he thought that Growltiger was an utter joke with bad eyesight, which made sense because he only had one eye, he took everything very seriously. During the nights, he would be sure to have full command over whoever the two people he was working with were. Munkustrap would order them around, having them make sure that everything was in place and organized for the next shift to come up.

He quickly rushed over to the edge of the ship, where Growltiger stood and looked off into the distance. 

To his great surprise, there actually was a ship there. It didn't look much bigger than their own, and seemed to be coming towards them. The other ship was moving at a relatively slow pace, and did not seem as though they were going to attack. There was a high chance that this ship wasn't even another pirate ship.

The ship could belong to a governor, some men who had saved up, even to the king himself. You never know what that guy was up to, he might be sending in spies.

“Alright, boys!” Shouted Growltiger. “Now, you raffish bunch are going to be helping’ me with all o’ this. We're gonna take whatever we find, whether it be women, clothing, money; anything that could be sold or used!”

The men sleepily nodded. There was a high chance that they had no clue what was going on.

They all stood there for a minute, and then Growltiger began screaming again.

“Go go go! Raise that damned flag! Fix the sails, we're going to them!”

Munkustrap quickly got to work giving the other members the correct orders. The men might act stupid and useless most of the time, but somehow, they all knew what they were doing, and it generally worked out in the end.

It was no time at all before they had almost reached the other ship, which, now that they had gotten closer, looked like it was just... idling there.

No one was on the deck. There were no crates, no humans. It was easy to board, especially for a crew that had never performed this task before.

Skimbleshanks, as one of the people who had been working with Growltiger for the longest, was charged with staying back on the ship and ensuring that they would have a speedy getaway. After that, everything came simple for the crew, as it was just like a normal robbery.

Growltiger thought he was in charge, but behind him, Munkustrap re-issued all his orders correctly and made sure everything was okay before going to open a door on the other side of the ship. The Captain simply stood there, observing. He was too above himself to actually do any work.

Alonzo slithered in and out of doorways with Munkustrap, checking each and every spot on the seemingly empty ship. As far as those two could tell, it was completely empty.

Directly in the middle of the ship is a trap door. This is fairly common for ships, as things are usually stored down there, like prisoners, supplies, and canons.

However, Tugger and Quaxo were struggling to pull the door up on its hinges. Perhaps it was a bad idea to have the ship's idiot and scaredy-cat do the muscle work, but they got along better than they did with anyone else, so they usually worked together.

“Ah, Captain, could you lend us a hand with getting this open?”

Their Captain sneered at them. “Of course, young crew. Munkustrap! Alonzo! Help these lads open the door!”

So the four of them did their best at grabbing the door and pulling. When it finally did open, they were greeted with... Absolutely nothing.

The trap door led to the bottom area of the ship, which was expected. However, instead of having crates and people inside of it, it was empty.

Growltiger walked over to them at last, a little impatient at what was happening. He wanted his treasure, and he wanted it now!

But Growltiger was met with the exact same sight that the rest of them were: A completely empty ship.

“Ahg!” He growled in frustration, shaking his fists. “I am Growltiger, Terror of the Seas! I need my treasure!”

He stomped his feet once, then again. “Boys, you go and look down there! Something must be in this ship!”

So Quaxo and Rum Tum Tugger slowly descended the ladder to the bottom, while the other two men waited at the top. Growltiger did nothing, so he isn't counted in this scenario. 

“I wouldn't suggest standing that close to the edge,” Said a voice.

The remaining crew and their Captain whipped around, and were greeted by what looked like hundreds of people surrounding them. All of them wore near identical masks in the shape of cat faces, and all of them seemed to be ten feet tall.

They were quiet when they walked, they must have been, or they wouldn't have been able to sneak up on the men like that. They all moved in perfect synchronization; a cock of the head, a step forward, a sword in hand.

“Arms ready, boys!” Screeched Growltiger.

“Pull out your sword,” Reiterated Munkustrap to Alonzo, who looked confused.

The three stood with their backs to each other, surrounding the trap door. Munkustrap and Alonzo both held their swords high above their heads, ready to slash down at any moment, while Growltiger did the exact opposite, and before they knew it,  _ Slash! _

Someone had made the first move, and the fight broke out around them!

The group was quick to move away from the trap door, as no one wanted to fall in, not even this enemy. Every pirate wants a fair sword fight in their life, and it's not fair if one falls to their death, especially not on their own ship.

At some point, Growltiger was separated from the group, and Munkustrap and Alonzo found themselves closer to their own ship than to any of the enemy pirates. They took this perfect opportunity to get back over.

“Skimble!” Called Munkustrap, “Get the ship ready to move as quickly as possible! We don't want anyone else to get on here!”

The man nodded, and the two others looked back over.

These other pirates, however, didn't seem to have any interest in boarding their ship. They all just went after Growltiger, slashing and banging at whatever they got close to.

They even ignored when Quaxo was shoved up and out of the trap door by Tugger, rolling on the deck for a minute before popping back up. He quickly ran back and helped the other man grab whatever they had found, before bolting around the other pirates to make it back to the ship.

While Quaxo carried one bag, Tugger carried two, and both looked proud of themselves. The bags were tossed across the waters before they tossed themselves over.

“Ay, what did you boys find?” Asked Skimble.

Tugger simply shrugged. “No clue! It was too dark down there to see anything, so we just grabbed what we could!”

This made Munkustrap sigh. Of course his idiotic brother didnt check what he was grabbing, he could have brought it over to the light that was coming in from the trap door!

“Well,” He grumbled, “Put those somewhere safe. I’m sure that Growltiger will be very happy to see that.”

Speaking of Growltiger, Munkustrap looked over back at the strange ship that they had just raided.

It seemed as though the number of people on board had diminished, but there were no bodies lying around. There were no bodies in the water either, and seeing as how there were no crates on the deck, it didn't seem as though they had hidden the bodies. 

Growltiger was still going at it, wildly swinging his sword at the enemy pirates.

“Captain,” Munkustrap shouted, “You need to get back on! We found something!”

Their Captain jumped, and slashed, and swung. He ran across the rails, pushing the other pirates aside as he made his way. It didn't look as cool as it sounded, but it would certainly be a tail that he exaggerated later to other men in the pubs.

His body finally crashed onto the deck of their small ship loudly. 

“Go go go go go!” He shouted to Skimbleshanks, who was, surprisingly enough, already steering the ship away.

The rest of the crew looked back over as they pulled away. The ship, which had before been filled to the brim with people, was suddenly empty.

With a sigh, Growltiger turned back to his crew. “Well, boys? What did you find?”

Tugger opened his mouth to proudly tell him about the loot, but was interrupted but the quiet Quaxo.

“Sir, your bleeding!”

And it's true, for on the side of Growltiger's head, there was blood matting down his already matted hair. 

The man brought a hand up to feel, as though he hadn't noticed before. His hand came away covered in blood.

“Quick!” Yelped Alonzo, “Get something to tie around his head!”

To everyone's surprise, little Quaxo was the first one to move. He ripped open one of the bags of loot. The rest of the crew has no clue why he did that, but it worked, for inside the bag were large, flouncy dresses.

The fabric on them was easy enough to tear from a bottom layer, and even easier to wrap around their Captains head.

“Damn,” Muttered Tugger, “These guys must have been a bunch of perverts.”

While some of the crew had been tending to Growltiger, and one of the crew had been steering the ship, Rum Tum Tugger had decided to open another bag, this time a bit more carefully. 

The inside was filled, not with dresses, but women's underclothing. The crew watched on in amazement as he opened the third bag, which had pairs of shoes and socks.

“Great, just great!” Munkustrap said, exasperated. “We raid a ship, our Captain gets hurt, and you idiots steal a bunch of clothing! Look at how smart we are today!”

“No, no! This is good!” Insisted Tugger. “Look, all we have to do is go to a city that won't question us that much. People would pay good money for this shit,” He gestured at the underclothing, “And as long as we don't question what they are going to do with it, they don't question us.”

Alonzo nodded in agreement. “I've seen tons of trades like this go down. People don't like when you know their personal business, and they don't like to know yours either.”

“Womens shoes sell for a good money as well,” Said the quiet Quaxo.

Tugger nodded. “Have you seen the prices on some of those things in stores? Most people would be saving up for years to get that stuff! Stores would kill to have women come into their stores, because ladies love to shop.” He winked at Quaxo. “That's the most I’ve heard you talk in one night, sweetheart!”

“ _ Shut the fuck up.” _

For what felt like the thousandth time that night, Munkustrap sighed. “I guess you do make a point there. Skimble, you want to find us a village or town nearby? But far enough that that ship won't reach us tonight.”

“Sure thing, my boy!” The older man replied.

Down on the deck, Growltiger lay, holding the dress that was tied to his head harder against his ear.

“Those damned pirates!” He screamed. “They had some kind of trick going on there, I know they did! Some kind of witchcraft! How else would they have gotten a hit on Growltiger the Great!”

“Well, lets see what it looks like,” Munkustrap said. 

He slowly let go of his head. When Munk removed the cloth, the bleeding had, thankfully, started to slow down. They wouldn't be losing their leader that night.

There was one thing that they would be losing, though, for the bleeding had not stemmed from a simple scrap of the sword or bump or hit.

No, Growltiger's entire ear was missing from the side of his head.

\--------------------------

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr is bees-in-a-davidbowie-shirt if ya wanna leave suggestions for prompts there


	3. Summer Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theres a productions cant remember the name but like in the bootleg clip of mr mistoffelees he chooses bomba instead of cassandra and after she reappears they like playfully push each other and i think thats really cute there were also some good tuggoffelees moments in there so in conclusion these three r best friends

Mistoffelees was a tuxedo cat. This was obvious, at least you would hope, for any other cat to figure out. He's mainly black, with the white on his chest, and to top it off, his humans had long ago given him a black bowtie as a collar.

The cat enjoyed his look. It was fashionable, mysterious, and the glitter that he used in the magic trick really struck out against the fur.

However, there were downsides to having this dark coat of fur. Especially in the summer.

Dark colors seem to 'attract' the sun more, and during the summer time, Mistoffelees often found himself getting overly hot while practicing his magic. The sun would beat down on every part of his body, from his ears to the tip of his tail, and he would eventually have to go back to his den and drink some water before he got overheated.

Today was no exception for the sun; it was already high in the sky. To Mistoffelees, it felt like he had only been practicing in the clearing for a few minutes, but the sun told otherwise, seeing as how it had been below the trees when he had started.

Mistoffelees did another spin, letting a burst of sparkles out of his paws, before frowning.

He had been practicing a new trick he had thought up the other day, where he would do his usual spins before making something appear, hopefully without having to use another cat or cloth or anything. This magic trick would be perfect and amazing; imagine the surprise of the kits when he's dancing for them and suddenly makes a mouse or bird appear! Unfortunately, the trick just didn't seem to want to work at the moment. All that he could get to come out of his paws were a couple of sad specks of glitter, and the longer he went, the sadder it got.

The black cat knew that it would probably get worse the longer he tried, but he just _had_ to get it right! The trick, in his mind, needed to be at least partially completed. He had this whole schedule in his head, and it needed to be finished and correct.

So, Mistoffelees walked over to the side of the clearing and started up the beginning of his usual routine again, running out into the center before throwing himself into the turns.

_1… 2… 3… 4…_

His head spun, and the sun seemed to be melting his fur, but he continued, wanting to at least finish this trek before giving up.

_8… 9… 10…_

Out of the corner of his eyes, Mistoffelees could see a figure standing at the edge of the clearing. They were a blur as he turned again and again, but the cat thought he caught a glimpse of a frown on their face.

Slowly, instinctively, Mistoffelees slowed himself to a stop. He carefully made his way to some nearby shade before sitting down, taking deep breaths and praying to the Everlasting Cat for a breeze.

A shadow suddenly formed over him, and he looked up to see Bombalurina standing there, frowning slightly and shaking her head.

The tall red queen was wearing a floppy, cat-sized head that definitely looked like it belonged to Jennyanydots, and did not seem to be as hot as the dark-colored tom was.

"I never thought that toms could be this stupid," She said with a click of her tongue, "But I have been proven wrong today." With a strong heave, the tall queen pulled Mistoffelees to his paws and began to help him walk to another area in the Junkyard.

The area that he was led to was under a rock and on the damp dirt, and was also occupied by another tom.

The Rum Tum Tugger was leaning against the back of the little area, and looked to be nearly asleep. After shoving Mistoffelees into the hole, Bombalurina climbed in and gave the fluffy tom a gentle but somehow still aggressive shake on the shoulder.

He jolted awake, looking around with half lidded eyes.

"Drink some water, idiot," She told him, holding up a cup that Mistoffelees had not seen before. From seemingly out of nowhere, she produced another cup of water, and handed it to the magical cat. "You too," She said.

Outside of the little space, the kittens played.

On the other side of the Junkyard, Munkustrap was seen sitting high up but under some shade. He looked mildly embarrassed, and a second glance told Mistoffelees that he was, in fact, wearing a Jenny-hat. The large brim of it flopped into his face, and the gray tom looked up and squinted while adjusting it.

Alonzo, yet another cat who was a bit more black than white, seemed to be taking a nap underneath some leaves.

Meanwhile, Victoria was having her best life with her white fur coat. She played with the kittens, launched herself at the sleeping Alonzo, and all about had some fun. Sometimes, Mistoffelees was jealous of his sister.

He smiled slightly at the sight, and slumped down a bit, but before his tired eyes could close, he was shaken.

The cup he had forgotten he was holding nearly fell, but by some chance, it didn't.

"Okay, Mr. Magical Cat, you still need to drink water," Said the red queen teasingly.

With a sigh, Mistoffelees took a couple licks, before slumping back.

"What are you doing?" He asked, curious about the situation that she seemed to be handling.

"You weren't here last time it got this hot," Bombalurina explained. "Tugger just has too much fur, and there's so many dark-colored cats in this Junkyard, and none of you have _any_ self perseverance!"

Mistoffelees laughed at that bit. Yeah, she wasn't wrong.

"Besides, Jenny is off somewhere with her humans, and I lived with her so long that I've seen way too many cats passing out from the heat."

"Well, I'm glad you're here to help, Bomba," Mistoffelees said. His voice was groggy, but he was genuinely grateful for her being there.

On the other side of the red queen, Tugger leaned over, reaching his paw out across her lap.

"Mm, Misto, give me your water," He whined, despite seeming to not want to drink anything merely minutes ago.

Also slumping into Bombalurina, Mistoffelees slid the nearly empty glass towards the large tom, and he guzzled it down.

"Hey," Said Tugger, slumping down onto Bombalurinas lap, "You're pretty damn good at this. Gonna take over Jennys job when she's too old?"

Laughing, Bombalurina gave her friend a good shove, before pulling him back onto her lap.

"Of course I'm not, you idiot. Old Gumbie still has plenty of lives left in her."

Mistoffelees, still tired and not really understanding what was happening, gave both the cats slight pushes with his paws before closing his eyes completely to get some much needed rest.

Bombalurina smiled while her best friends curled around her, nearly asleep while she observed the chaos of the Junkyard.

**Author's Note:**

> anyways im not actually trained as a server my coworker asked me to take her short shift one day and i was like sure and showed up and did it  
> also my manager constantly yells at me 'tHe BacKdOoR isn't aN eXiT' and then we all leave thru the backdoor anyways
> 
> your always free to leave suggestions in the comments! i write too much. or i have anon turned on on my tumblr, bees-in-a-davidbowie-shirt, so you can leave suggestions there


End file.
